NEW YORK — "Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson has just died," the woman called out breathlessly upon boarding a Manhattan bus, moments after the news had broken. Not a word was spoken in response. But nearly every passenger reached for a BlackBerry, a cell phone, whatever device was at hand.

"People are already texting about it, putting it up on Facebook, remembering his greatest moments," noted Delmar Dualeh, sitting in the back. At 17, he confessed, the news didn't really move him emotionally. He was too young to recall the 50-year-old entertainer in his prime. But he was fully engaged in the cultural moment. He hurried the conversation along so he could get back to texting.

In Iran, people speak of a Twitter uprising. Was this the first major Twitter celebrity death? Because it wasn't just how many people first learned of Jackson's demise but what they did once they found out.

"Once you knew the news, there wasn't so much more to know — the rest is all comment," said media critic Jeff Jarvis. So, he said, maybe you'd go to your friends instead of the news: "You might care more what your friends say than some analyst."

Jarvis himself tweeted the moment he heard of the death: He noted that Iran's spiritual leader should be grateful to Jackson because the story wiped Iran off the day's news agenda.

"That was re-tweeted a lot," Jarvis said.

The company said news of Jackson's death generated the most tweets per second since Barack Obama was elected president, and more than twice the normal tweets per second from the moment the story broke.

Plain old texting, Dualeh's choice, had its largest spike on AT&T'S network in history. Nearly 65,000 texts per second were sent, the company said — more than 60 percent over normal volume.

And on Facebook, "sharing of all types went up — including wall posts, comments, notes, posted links," wrote spokeswoman Jaime Schopflin in an e-mail. "Status updates in particular saw an increase of more than three times the amount than usual."

Some posters were cynical, but many more were grief-stricken, like Jackson fan Scott Friedstein, an administrative assistant who lives in Brooklyn.

"There will never be another like him, ever," Friedstein wrote. "The word 'superstar' is tossed around a lot, but no one personified the term, lived and breathed it, and delivered like he did. To all the people who liked Michael Jackson when it wasn't cool to ... I feel for you."

Facebook said there were no internal reports of the site slowing from too much traffic. But there were slowdowns or outages on other sites. Google said the spike in searches related to Jackson was so big that Google News initially mistook it for an automated attack.

Wikipedia, meanwhile, had trouble with traffic, with people getting intermittent error messages, said Jimmy Wales, founder of the online encyclopedia, in a telephone interview. He also described an online debate between users and regular editors over whether Jackson's death should be added to his entry before the news was officially confirmed.

Finally, editors intervened and prevented entries about Jackson to be modified for about six hours, Wales said.

Experiencing slowdowns were the Web sites of ABC, AOL, the Los Angeles Times and CBS, according to Keynote Systems, an Internet monitoring service. Also experiencing an impact were MSNBC.com, NBC and Yahoo! News.

(Msnbc is a Microsoft Corp.-NBC Universal joint venture.)

The initial news of Jackson's death broke on TMZ.com at 5:20 p.m. The Los Angeles Times and then The Associated Press confirmed the death just before 6:30 p.m. EDT, and networks then led their broadcasts with the news.

TMZ quoted a source inside the hospital, and turned out to be right. But there were plenty of false reports circulating across the Web that mainstream news organizations had to chase: Rumors of actor Jeff Goldblum falling off a cliff, Harrison Ford falling off a yacht and, on Friday, George Clooney in a plane crash.

Balancing two sidesAnother challenge the mainstream media faced was presenting both sides of Jackson himself, and balancing the polarities of his story. On the one hand, there was ample video evidence of the extraordinarily gifted young man who took the world by storm, moon-walking on the Apollo Theater stage, or dancing hypnotically in the groundbreaking "Thriller" video.

On the other, there was the pale, older man, dangling his baby off a hotel balcony, or seen in video from his trial on charges of child molestation. So which Jackson to show?

"There was a duality to Michael Jackson that you had to deal with," said Susan Zirinsky, executive producer of "48 Hours" and CBS specials. "The man died with a legacy of shame. The news had to be a combined sentence."

To open the one-hour special she produced, anchored by Harry Smith, Zirinsky chose four words that she felt conveyed the dichotomy: "A prodigy. A sensation. The controversy. The tragedy."

The same duality was evident on NBC's "Today" show, where one moment Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira were describing how Jackson was the most compelling entertainer they had ever seen.

Later, writer Maureen Orth, a guest on the show, told Lauer that Jackson had ruined the lives of families and children, and she cast doubt on the justice of his acquittal.

"But I did love his music," Orth added.

"Today" executive producer Jim Bell acknowledged it was a challenge to balance the two sides. "But that was one of the main reasons he was such a compelling figure," Bell said. "Otherwise, I don't know that his death would have been such a momentous occasion."

The fact that the news broke on a celebrity Web site and spread like wildfire across the social networking sites is a noteworthy change in how celebrity deaths get reported, Bell said. But he added that the mainstream media is becoming more nimble as a result.

And, Bell added, with a huge media event such as Jackson's death, the audience is going to increase everywhere, including network TV. "There's going to be a lot of eyeballs in both new and traditional media," Bell said. "It's not a zero-sum game."

Maybe not, but Friedstein, the Brooklyn man, went home Thursday night and logged onto Facebook right away. He didn't turn on the TV — he doesn't even have one.

"I just wanted to see how other people were feeling," he said later by telephone. "This was shattering, surreal even. It's my generation's version of Elvis dying."

Michael Jackson fans cry as they embrace during a public gathering to watch Jackson's memorial service on a giant television screen along 125th street in the Harlem section of New York on Tuesday, July 7.
(Mike Segar / Reuters)
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Mackenzie Houck, right, visits a makeshift memorial for Jackson that has sprung up outside the Jackson family home in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino on Wednesday, July 1.
(Jae C. Hong / AP)
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Michael Townes holds a portrait of a young Michael Jackson as he and other people wait in line for a public memorial for the pop star at the Apollo Theater on Tuesday, June 30. Fans began converging on the Apollo soon after Jackson died Thursday in Los Angeles. It has continued to serve as an impromptu memorial site in the days since. Jackson's ties to the theater go back to 1967, when The Jackson 5 won the Apollo’s Amateur Night contest.
(Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images)
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A hat, sunglasses and a single white glove are displayed on stage at the Apollo Theater on Tuesday, June 30, in New York.
(Bryan Bedder / Getty Images)
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Bronx resident Conchita Jones, right, comforts her crying daughter Essence, 13, during a tribute to Jackson at Harlem's Apollo Theater in New York on Tuesday, June 30.
(Jason Decrow / AP)
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Kena Patterson of Los Angeles writes out "MJ" with lit candles at a makeshift memorial outside the family home of late pop star Michael Jackson in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles early Monday, June 29.
(Gus Ruelas / AP)
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Graffiti depicting the young Michael Jackson on the walls of an undergound passage in Stuttgart, Germany. The painting was created over the past weekend during a legal graffiti session at Stuttgart's "Hall of Fame."
(Marijan Murat / EPA)
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Singer Janet Jackson, sister of the late singer Michael Jackson, speaks at the 2009 BET Awards held at the Shrine Auditorium on Tuesday, June 28, in Los Angeles.
(Kevin Winter / Getty Images)
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A poster board containing greetings from fans of the late Michael Jackson was on hand during a candlelight vigil in front of Hitsville, the Motown Records Museum in Detroit, Mich., on Sunday, June 28.
(Gary Malerba / EPA)
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A Michael Jackson fan mourns the death of the "King of Pop" at the U.S. embassy in Moscow on Sunday, June 28.
(Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP - Getty Images)
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A fan of Michael Jackson shouts before a candlelight vigil held in tribute to the pop music icon in the city of Lima, Peru, on Sunday, June 28.
(Enrique Castro-Mendivil / Reuters)
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Filipino inmates perform in front of a portrait of Pop star Michael Jackson inside the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the central Philippines on Saturday. Around 1,581 orange-clad Filipino inmates who gained worldwide attention for an impressive "Thriller" performance on YouTube paid their last respects to the late "King of Pop."
(Dennis M. Sabangan / EPA)
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A member of Michael Jackson's Fan Club in Vietnam poses with a portrait during a memorial tribute at a cafe in Hanoi on June 27. Jackson's death dominated news bulletins, radio airwaves and Web sites the world over on June 26 as tributes poured in for a man called the "King of Pop" and "natural heir to Elvis."
(Kham / Reuters)
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Taiwanese Michael Jackson impersonators Wang Chi-wei, 31, right, and Lee Yen-ting dance Jackson-stylized moves in Taipei, Taiwan on June 27. In 1993, Wang was voted as best impersonator of Michael Jackson in an island-wide contest allowing him to meet with the pop star.
(Wally Santana / AP)
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Fans dance to celebrate the life of pop icon Michael Jackson at Washington Square Park in New York on Friday, June 26.
(Eric Thayer / Reuters)
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Russians lay flowers in memory of late pop star Michael Jackson at the U.S. embassy in Moscow on Friday, June 26. Fans around the world grieved for Michael Jackson while his star friends in Hollywood and music declared themselves devastated by the sudden death of the "King of Pop."
(Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP - Getty Images)
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Fans hold up a sea of single-gloved hands in an impromptu celebration of the life of Michael Jackson. They gathered outside UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles after he was pronounced dead on Thursday, June 25.
(Reed Saxon / AP)
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Young fans of Michael Jackson take part in a candlelight memorial to commemorate him in Karachi, Pakistan, on Friday, June 26.
(Shakil Adil / AP)
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A fan sits after laying a tribute to Michael Jackson at the O2 Arena in London on Friday, June 26. The 50-year-old superstar was preparing for what would be a series of 50 concerts starting July 13 at London's famed 02 arena.
(Nigel Roddis / Reuters)
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Sand sculptures of Michael Jackson, a guitar and his fedora hat, made by Sudarshan Pattnaik, are seen at the Golden Sea Beach for the fans to pay floral tribute at Puri, India, on Friday, June 26.
(Biswaranjan Rout / AP)
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An Indonesian painter puts out a painting of the late U.S. pop star Michael Jackson in front of his booth for sale on the street in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday, June 26. The pop star Michael Jackson died June 25, collapsing after a cardiac arrest at his home in Los Angeles, officials said.

A Japanese fan reacts as she looks at a commemorative stand for Michael Jackson at a music shop in Tokyo, Friday.
(Kim Kyung-hoon / Reuters)
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Michael Jackson look-a-like Wu Di, who has been performing as Michael Jackson in local bars for two years, dances as he poses for pictures in the street in Beijing, Friday.
(Reinhard Krause / Reuters)
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A woman checks the breaking news of Michael Jackson's death at an electronic store in Hsintien, Taipei county on Friday.
(Sam Yeh / AFP - Getty Images)
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Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, pauses for a moment before a news conference held after the death of Michael Jackson, Thursday, June 25.
(Jae C. Hong / AP)
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Tyson Stevens, center, joins other fans on Thursday to remember Michael Jackson at the star they believe belongs to the pop star, but actually belongs to a radio personality of the same name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles.
(Philip Scott Andrews / AP)
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A woman cries on the phone as she tells a friend that Michael Jackson has passed away on Thursday, June 25, in Los Angeles. The iconic pop star, 50, was rushed to the hospital after going into cardiac arrest, according to reports.
(Ann Johansson / Getty Images)
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The Rev. Al Sharpton speaks in front of the Apollo Theater to the media on Thursday, June 25, about the death of Michael Jackson.
(Louis Lanzano / AP)
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Curator Curtis Huber, left, and curator assistant Eric Valencia lift a wax figure of Michael Jackson to put in the front display at the Wax Museum at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco on Thursday, June 25.
(Jeff Chiu / AP)
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Lana Brown, a tourist from Dallas, cries as she hugs her 10-year-old son Tovre as they mourn the death of pop star Michael Jackson outside the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 25.

TJ Thomas and Marie Bouchard remember Michael Jackson at what they believe to be the singer's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 25. Jackson's star was covered by the red carpet for Sascha Baron Cohen's premiere of the movie "Bruno" when the news broke.
(Nick Ut / AP)
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